Here are some insights into this enigmatic vocabulary, and the winemaking that goes into producing the 2010 vintage.
 
At the end of the 2010 harvest, we had picked 230,829 kilograms of grapes.  The berries were meticulously selected and placed into tanks as they arrived at the Château.  The cellar team performed rigorous daily monitoring to control the alcoholic fermentation, temperatures and densities of each tank, divided into 38 lots.
 
Over five weeks, two teams of three people rotated shifts every day from 6am to 11pm in order to pump over each tank of wine, a required step in order to extract color, aromas and tannins.
Alcoholic fermentation began soon after the berries were placed in the tanks.
With the help of CO2 bubbles, the skins floated to the surface, forming a "cap" of marc. To obtain a wine with a delicious red color, offering a tannic structure that is solid, powerful and refined, the juice is regularly run through the marc; as it filters through, it takes on phenols and anthocyanins.
 
The singularity of Château Palmer resides in this regular pumping over, regular yet gentle.  This is especially true in the 2010 vintage.  The berries we picked this year showed a particularly high level of tannins and a remarkable extractability.  Pumping over was quickly slowed, or even stopped, in order to preserve the elegance, finesse and subtleness that make up the signature Palmer style.
 
Pumping over finished at the end of October, but almost half of the tanks are still filled with their wine, macerating. Extraction allows us to obtain the desired amount of tannins with the help of pumping over; Maceration is going to polish and soften these tannins.  Now they will fill out, becoming silkier, fatter, and plumper.  As Sabrina Pernet, Technical Director, tends to say, this is the finishing phase, essential to the blossoming and completion of the wine.
 
Rendezvous tomorrow for the next post...